John Frederick Hamm, OC (born April 8, 1938) is a Canadian physician and

politician and was the 25th Premier of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Contents [hide]
1

Education

Provincial politics

Progressive Conservative Party

Premier of Nova Scotia

Retirement

After politics

Atlantic Accord

References

Education[edit]
Hamm, a graduate of the University of King's College and Dalhousie University,
was a family doctor in his hometown of Stellarton, Nova Scotia, and the president
of the Nova Scotia Medical Society.

Provincial politics[edit]
He entered politics in 1993, becoming the Member of the Legislative Assembly
for the riding of Pictou Centre.[1]

Progressive Conservative Party[edit]

Hamm was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia in
1995,[2] succeeding Terry Donahoe. His party won 14 seats in the 1998
provincial election and held the balance of power in a minority government
where both the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party, led by Russell
MacLellan and Robert Chisholm, respectively, each had nineteen seats.[3][4]

Premier of Nova Scotia[edit]

Hamm's Tories defeated the Liberal minority government on a budget vote on
June 17, 1999,[5] and in the subsequent election on July 27, 1999, Hamm was
elected Premier, winning 30 of the 52 seats in the provincial legislature.[6]

After taking office, Hamm sold or closed government-owned industries such as

Sydney Steel.[7] He invested more in education and health care, and
implemented some tax cuts. His government was the first to truly balance
provincial finances in 25 years, following changes in public sector accounting
practises.

In 2001, Hamm was at odds with the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union,
trying to legislate nurses back to work after a legal strike.

In the 2003 election, Hamm's Progressive Conservatives were reduced to a

minority government. The main issue in that election was the increasing cost of
car insurance and whether Nova Scotia should begin to allow general Sunday
shopping. Despite the minority government, Hamm's government was able to
drop an NDP plan for government automobile insurance issue, and put the
Sunday shopping issue to a province-wide plebiscite. Hamm is opposed to
Sunday shopping and a public auto insurance system.

Retirement[edit]
On September 29, 2005, Hamm announced his intention to retire as Premier and
PC Leader.[8] In the Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia
leadership election, 2006, Rodney MacDonald was elected his successor.

After politics[edit]
On December 21, 2006, Hamm was appointed Chairperson of Assisted Human
Reproduction Canada, a federal agency created to protect and promote the
health and safety, human dignity and human rights of Canadians who use or are
born of assisted human reproduction technologies, and to foster ethical
principles in relation to assisted human reproduction and other related matters.

In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions to
the province of Nova Scotia as a former premier, family physician and
community leader."[9]

In 2010 he became the Chairman of the Board of the holding company for
Northern Pulp mill of Abercrombie, whose board he had joined shortly after his
resignation from politics prior to the 2006 provincial election.

In May 2014 he was awarded an Doctor of Civil Law (honoris causa) from
University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia for his service to Kings, his
community and the province.

October 2014, he was awarded an "Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of

Physicians and Surgeons of Canada."

Also in October 2014, John Hamm was appointed the Honorary Colonel for the
1st Battalion Nova Scotia Highlanders (North) for the next three years.

Atlantic Accord[edit]
One of his most notable achievements was negotiating with the federal
government to implement the Atlantic Accord, a multi-decade regional
development program that had been approved in principle during the late 1980s
to prevent provincial government offshore oil and gas royalties from being
included in calculations for the federal equalization program. This resulted in an
$830 million payment in 2005 from the federal government, which Hamm
applied against the principal on the province's long term debt, thereby reducing
debt servicing payments by over $50 million annually.[10]